These People Really Were Devious

Second Floor Entrance.

A team of adventurers who had just entered saw Mark and his companions stumbling toward them in a sorry state. Their silver-white armor was torn and battered, Mark's left arm hung limp at his side, and his blond hair clung to his sweat-drenched face. None of his usual lofty bearing remained.

"Should we make a move?"

The assassin in the adventuring party toyed with his dagger, his eyes sweeping over Mark and the others' throats. His meaning could not have been clearer.

In a dungeon, danger did not come solely from monsters.

To adventurers, the badly wounded Mark and his companions were also a huge fortune. The full plate armor forged from refined steel, along with Mark's obviously higher-grade knight armor, was practically a juicy piece of meat delivered straight to the mouths of an ordinary adventuring party.

And this was a dungeon. As long as they kept things clean, who would know it was them?

"First, find out what happened," the party leader said in a low voice.

Mark and his companions were not nobodies. As the personal knights of Margery Town's lord, all the adventurers in town knew them. Mark was also a full-fledged professional, with several knight apprentices under him.

Even badly wounded, taking them down would not be easy.

Of greater concern was what Mark and the others had encountered to end up like this. They had been the first group to enter the dungeon's second floor... Could they have already found the entrance to the third floor?

Or had they found some kind of treasure?

With nothing more than exchanged glances, the adventuring party spread out and perfectly blocked the exit leading back to the first floor, completely cutting off Mark and the others' path of retreat.

"What do you people think you're doing?"

The severely wounded Mark stopped with the three remaining members of his knight squad, glaring fixedly at the adventurers blocking the way. The rage in his eyes was like a volcano on the verge of eruption. Just moments ago, to buy time for their escape,

Mark had ignored the backlash and relied on a Berserk Potion to forcibly unleash greater strength, barely holding back the Large Steel Slime that had lunged at them. He had then fled toward the upper floor with the three remaining members of his knight squad.

On the way, they had encountered two Death Iron Skeletons. Mark had traded injury for life and forcibly killed one in an instant, then thrown his greatsword to knock back the other Death Iron Skeleton before finally escaping here.

Mark's left hand was not merely crippled now. Worse still, the backlash from the Berserk Potion had erupted. At this moment, less than one-tenth of his battle aura remained, and his entire body was weak and powerless.

"Damned commoners, move aside!" Mark took several steps forward and glared aggressively at the adventurers before him. "Move aside now, or I'll kill you all myself!"

Mark could not show the slightest hint of weakness now. He had to be even fiercer, or the adventurers before him would pounce like hyenas that had scented blood. Having seen countless adventurers, Mark understood these so-called adventurers very well.

It was a profession with strangely high highs and low lows. The greatest adventurers slew dragons, killed evil gods, and left behind countless legends. As for the lower end, apart from rookies who searched for cats and walked dogs, many adventurers also worked as bandits, thugs, thieves, or gang enforcers.

Behind him, the other three members of the knight squad drew their weapons as soon as their captain spoke, ready for battle. At a single word from Mark, they would charge forward and fight the adventurers before them to the death.

"Calm down, Sir Mark. Seeing that you are all injured, I merely wished to offer a little help."

The ordinary-looking adventuring party leader studied Mark and the three knight squad members. Just as the atmosphere between both sides grew increasingly tense, he suddenly raised his hands to show that he meant no harm, a faint smile appearing on his face.

At the side, another adventurer promptly took out a healing potion and tossed it toward Mark.

"No need." Mark did not even look at the healing potion flying past him. He said coldly, "Move aside immediately, or else..."

Fire-attribute battle aura erupted, and the surrounding temperature began to soar. Under the firelight, Mark's face became increasingly savage, like a beast ready to tear its prey apart at any moment.

"Let them pass."

After a brief silence, the adventuring party leader signaled for his companions to clear the way. However, as Mark passed him, he asked, "Captain Mark, what did you encounter?"

"A treasure chest, a Mana Spring, and a Large Mutant Steel Slime."

Mark left with the three knights without looking back. Only after passing through the spiral passage and returning to the first floor did his expression instantly collapse. His body was so weak that he could barely stand. Fortunately, the knights beside him reacted quickly and supported him, preventing him from falling.

"Leave the dungeon as fast as possible and rendezvous with the other three squads." After giving that final order, Mark could no longer hold on and fainted.

"Captain, why didn't we make a move just now?"

The thief who had thrown the healing potion to Mark earlier stepped forward, picked up the potion from the ground, and tilted his head at his captain. He had no idea when his captain had become such a good person.

"That guy wasn't easy to deal with." The ordinary-looking man shook his head and continued, "A beast's final counterattack when it is near death is often even more dangerous. Besides, we didn't come away empty-handed."

What Mark had said before leaving was the main reason the adventuring party leader had been willing to let them go. A treasure chest and a Mana Spring were worth more than Mark and his three companions combined. As for a mere Large Steel Slime, he did not care about it at all.

"Fine, you're the captain, after all." The thief nodded somewhat regretfully and slipped the healing potion back into his clothes.

That guy had been a little too cautious, completely unlike those idiotic nobles within the kingdom. The healing potion he had thrown was genuine, but its bottle was coated with a colorless, odorless substance. Touching it alone posed no problem.

But once combined with something else, it would instantly become a lethal poison.

"Enough nonsense. Follow the trail they left behind and take the treasure chest and Mana Spring."

"Yes, Captain!"

The other adventurers licked their lips, greed filling their eyes. After learning that a dungeon had appeared in Margery, they had abandoned their mission and rushed back overnight just to make a fortune.

Led by the thief, they followed the traces Mark and the others had left while fleeing and hurried toward the Mana Spring.

"These people really were devious."

Luo Ao, who had been watching the entire situation, could not help but sigh. Having lived in a peaceful era before crossing over, where had he ever seen anything like this?

Still, Luo Ao had to admit that the adventurers and noble knights capable of entering the second floor so quickly were neither fools nor idiots. They might be wicked, shameless, despicable, and utterly without limits, but they would never be stupid.

Luo Ao decided to learn properly from these adventurers and noble knights, striving to make the dungeon even more sinister, dangerous, and unscrupulous. Only then could it better stop adventurers from entering the dungeon.